Pumps

Types of pumps

posted Jun 5th, 2014 by Stan Hieronymus

Despite what all the engineers and pump salesmen will tell you, there really are only two types of pumps; centrifugal and positive displacement. Understand the difference between these two and you are well on your way to understanding pumps. The difference is that centrifugal pumps spins at a high speed and transfers centrifugal or kinetic energy into the liquid in the form of velocity and pressure. The positive displacement pump, on the other hand, transfers a precise measured amount of liquid from the inlet to the outlet for each rotation or stroke of the pump. Let’s look at each.

Centrifugal pumps

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Sizing your pump

posted Jun 5th, 2014 by Stan Hieronymus

Once you have selected your pump type you have to select the right size. Pick too small a pump and the problems will be obvious but picking too big a pump can be just as bad. Not only are you wasting your money on an unnecessarily expensive pump, but it can beat up your beer. After all the pump wants to move stuff around and if your pump is too big for your lines, it will cavitate and damage your beer, your pump and your lines and…
So to size your pump you need to figure out a few basic things:

Let’s take an example where Joe wants to transfer 20 barrels of wort from the boil kettle to a fermenter.

1. Flow Rate – How much product do you want to move in a set period of time. For example you want to transfer 20 barrels of wort in 20 minutes. 20 barrels x 31 gallons = 620 gallons/20 minutes or 31 gallons per minute.
2. Discharge head or lift – Simply how high we need to lift the wort. The height of the fermentation tank plus any additional lift. (i.e. Are your tanks elevated on a platform or on the second floor)
3. Back Pressure (also known as pressure drop) – Is what wants to stop that wort from moving? Equipment like valves, heat exchangers, filters all sit between where your wort is and where you want it to be. The pressure drop for this equipment can be found in different ways. On the name plates of your heat exchangers. Filter suppliers will have it for different elements. Add all this together and you know your back pressure.

Suction side design – Keep your suction-side lines large and short

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Pump components and seals

posted Jun 5th, 2014 by Stan Hieronymus

The main components in a pump are the casing, impeller, backing plate, shaft and shaft seal, and the motor adapter. Some pumps have the backing plate as part of the casing in which case you would have a removable cover.

Shaft seals

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Pumps

posted Jun 5th, 2014 by Stan Hieronymus

Table of contents

– Types of pumps
– Sizing your pump
– Pump components and seals
– Pumps Q&A

The most common piece of equipment in the world is the pump. We see them everywhere and in particular we seem them in every brewery. Most breweries, even the smallest nano will have several pumps. A HLT pump, a brew house pump, a cellar pump, and a CIP pump. Sometimes of course one pump will serve two or more duties.

So what exactly is a pump anyway?

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